HI EVERYONE! i have a question about bottle stoppers for wine, and i'm having trouble finding an answer. i am interested in giving away bottle stoppers as favors for 200+ guests at my upcoming august wedding, but the ones we have found are all glass, with no cork or rubber on the part that goes into the bottle. so basically, they just sit in the bottle vs. truly providing an air-tight seal. my question is, does wine really need an air-tight seal if it is something you are going to drink within a few days? if so, what are these if not wine stoppers? i believe they may be decanter stoppers, for glass wine decanters, another subject i know nothing about. i want to make sure this is something my guests can use and will be familiar with - these are very pretty and elegant and we have had trouble finding others that we really like that are within our price range. any thoughts or ideas would be so very much appreciated.

Hi Heath and welcome to the Wine Board. Tobin James winery in Paso Robles sends out a very nice plastic stopper with each shipment to the James Gang. It is always attached to a dessert wine. Only mention it because it is very functional, and we use them all the time. I think if you asked them the source of those stoppers you should be able to get them in a style you could use. Contact them at: info@tobinjames.com

thank you - we will look into that. we really do like the ones we have found (the glass ones) but just need to know whether or not they can and should actually be used as wine stoppers - any info on that would be great! thanks!

This may not be much help because I don't have a source for ordering, but while living in Germany I collected various bottle tops with cork (many with pewter) such as a fleur de lys, a figure of man and woman in traditional Bavarian costumes, a knight in armor, etc.
Here is a website with animal stoppers:
http://thejunglestore.com/en-us/dept_1125.html
and another with wood topping:
http://www.paulswood.com/stoppers.htm
The glass ones are sometimes very attractive and I think they would still make a nice wedding souvenir even if they don't perform as efficiently as a seal.
I just noted that you are from Ann Arbor. If you contact the owner of Village Corner Wine Shop (Forest Avenue), he could probably tell you if the glass stoppers are of any practical use. (I earned my Master's degree at Michigan.)